There are many environments without a surrounding communications/data infrastructure required to support communications and information services equipment, such as equipment used to access a network or conduct phone calls. These environments include battlefields, harsh environments, disaster areas, buildings, construction areas, and so on.
As more facilities, companies, and organizations rely on IT and communications equipment to perform daily operations, there is a need to provide access in these environments. However, current attempts fail because many of the environments are inaccessible and transporting large quantities of equipment to the environment may be problematic or not feasible. For example, large amounts of equipment are more likely to be damaged during shipping, handling, setting up, or taking down of the equipment in a battlefield or disaster area. Environmental factors may also damage equipment. These factors may include heat, rain, wind, dust, vibrations, and/or rough handling.
Also, large quantities of equipment are generally more time-consuming expensive to install, set up, and maintain. The equipment may require many skilled technicians to assist in the installation and setup, adding further costs and problems. These systems may also require technicians to assist in configuration, security, monitoring, and maintenance of the equipment even after the initial set up. Additionally, it may be difficult to bring technicians and other skilled persons to some of the environments that require such IT and communications equipment.
Other problems associated with complex or sophisticated equipment may be a time consuming setup and configuration of the system, expensive or large power needs, expensive customization in design and security of a system, and so on. These and other problems exist in providing a computing, communications, and networking infrastructure in “edge” environments.